


Right Before Dawn

by innerslytherin



Series: The Fifth Year [26]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-04
Updated: 2010-07-04
Packaged: 2017-10-10 09:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,381
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/98195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/innerslytherin/pseuds/innerslytherin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the case in Los Angeles, everyone has some decompressing to do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Right Before Dawn

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to [](http://resolucidity.livejournal.com/profile)[**resolucidity**](http://resolucidity.livejournal.com/) for the beta. Spoilers for "Our Darkest Hour". I'll state here that I'm going to finish out some storylines, so this isn't the end of the series. I will, however, be wrapping the series up this summer. Much love to everyone who has been reading so far. :)

  
The minute they'd heard from Morgan, Aaron had sent Dave and Spencer up in a chopper to search from the air. Morgan had been able to give them a description of the unsub as well as details on the vehicle, a 70s model Winnebago.

"He's got a forty minute headstart on us, Hotch," Morgan groaned through the static on the line. Even after the cell grid came back online, it had been unstable.

"We'll get him," Aaron promised. After all, the team had promised they would catch Foyet for him, and they had. They would catch this guy too.

Just before dawn they'd run the unsub down. He'd driven the Winnebago over an embankment to get away from them. Dave and Spencer had watched from the air as the ground units converged on the wreckage. The unsub was dead. Allison, who had been stuffed into a storage compartment with her wrists and ankles duct taped, had survived with only a broken collarbone.

It wasn't a happy ending, not with her father in the morgue and her aunt traumatized, but it was as happy as they were going to get.

***

"He's going to be okay," Aaron said as he came out of the emergency room. "He's got a concussion, but that's not a surprise."

Dave nodded. "And the sister?"

"Physically, she'll recover." Aaron glanced over his shoulder and Dave followed the look to where Emily was sitting with Kristin Spicer. It always sent a little surge of pride through Dave when he saw Emily taking care of one of the victims. This woman had so much compassion for people, and somehow she loved him.

Dave nodded again. "It's a damn shame about Spicer. He was a nice kid."

"He let his emotions control him," Aaron said. His brows were drawn together. "Morgan said he kept telling Spicer not to give in to the unsub's demands. The unsub doesn't kill children." He shook his head. "Why did the unsub take Allison?"

"It's the ultimate power trip," Dave said. He watched Emily stand, saw Kristin grab at Emily's elbow. Emily sat down again. "He left children alive partly because he felt no sexual interest in children, but mostly to make sure he was remembered. And now he kills our detective, rapes the detective's sister, and takes the detective's daughter, leaving Morgan behind as the eyewitness. He's making sure he'll be remembered. He's showing us he has the power."

Aaron sighed. "Morgan wanted to go after him. I didn't know what to tell him, Dave."

Frowning, Dave studied his best friend's expression. "What do you mean?"

"I know what it's like. After Foyet...all I could think about was getting Jack back. The EMT insisted Morgan go to the hospital. But I looked at Morgan's face and I could see myself, trapped in that hospital bed, unable to do anything."

Dave nodded. "You made the right call, sending Morgan to the hospital. He was too emotionally involved to be any use, and the condition he was in physically, he would have been a liability anyway." He shook his head. "We got the bastard, Aaron. We couldn't lose Morgan in the process."

Aaron looked steadily back at Dave. "Like you almost lost me."

"Damn straight." Dave had hated watching Aaron suffer, but worse than watching him suffer was the thought that he might give in. That he might somehow self-destruct after losing his ex-wife and child to Foyet's machinations. And then after Foyet killed Haley... Dave was just glad Aaron had already begun building a relationship with Spencer. However much that relationship had been damaged by Haley's death, it hadn't been broken.

Finally Aaron nodded. "I'll ask Emily to keep an eye on him." He rubbed his forehead with a thumb and forefinger. "And JJ and I will go meet the girl's ambulance and make sure she gets back to her aunt."

***

"If your blood pressure gets much higher, they're going to come back in here," Emily remarked. She toed her shoes off and pulled her knees up to her chest, watching Morgan fume in his hospital bed.

"I shoulda been out there looking for Allie," Morgan growled. He was scowling at her, but she didn't mind. She could understand how frustrated and helpless he had felt.

"You're concussed," she said. "With possibly cracked ribs. And frankly, if your face doesn't hurt like hell, you're made of sterner stuff than I am." She could still remember the feel of Benjamin Cyrus' blows, and while she knew Morgan _was_ physically stronger than she was, he also had to be hurting as much as she had in Colorado.

"I made Spicer a promise," Morgan said. His lips were tight over clenched teeth.

"Which you both knew you couldn't keep," Emily said. She rested a hand on his forearm. "Derek, I know you liked Spicer. I did too. But he let his emotions get in the way of the job. And now you're doing the same thing. We got the guy. Hotch and JJ are taking care of getting Allie to her aunt. Kristin's a strong woman, and having Allie to take care of will give her a reason to focus on recovery. Reid's wrapping things up at the station." She squeezed his arm gently. "What else do you think you could be doing that they're not?"

He looked away from her, but she felt his muscles loosen slightly. "Somethin'." His voice was surly now instead of angry. He knew she was right.

"Just try to get some rest," she said softly. "That way when you're needed again, you'll be ready to spring into action."

He glowered at her, but she was getting used to handling Dave, and Morgan was a lot like Dave, when it came down to it. She gave him a faint smile, and Morgan sighed.

"If you're gonna hang around here, why don't you see if you can get me some jello."

***

  
Aaron and Spencer sat together on the flight home. They didn't speak, but Aaron appreciated his lover's company. Aaron couldn't settle his mind. His thoughts flickered to Matt Spicer's concern over the little boy, to the look on Allie Spicer's face in the hospital, to the devastation in Morgan's expression over the whole thing.

Morgan was sitting alone, his headphones around his neck. He was staring out the window, but Aaron wasn't sure he was really looking at anything.

Aaron knew how powerless Morgan must be feeling. He knew the physical pain as well as the emotional pain. And he wasn't sure if anything he said would help.

They were all unhappy about Spicer's death. Aaron hated losing a law enforcement officer, no matter what the circumstances. But the fact was that Spicer had never fully had confidence in the profile. One thing Aaron had needed to do was relearn how to trust the profile. He could understand the doubt that trickled in, especially when you were personally involved. But Spicer had doubted the profile and doubted the team, and that was ultimately why he had died. Aaron hated to see Morgan taking responsibility on himself for that.

Finally he stood and went to the kitchenette, making a cup of coffee for Morgan and a cup of tea for himself. He carried them over and sat across from Morgan.

Morgan's glance was wary, but he took the coffee. For a long time they sat in silence, but finally Aaron said, "You did everything right, Derek."

Morgan's head jerked back and he stared at Aaron, but the words were true. "We went in without backup," Morgan protested. "If I'd just--"

"Spicer would have gone in with or without you," Aaron interrupted quietly. "You did what you had to do. And you did everything right."

"The guy got the jump on me."

Aaron sighed. He hadn't been there, so he didn't know for sure what had happened. But he had full confidence in Morgan. "I stand by what I said, Derek. You're a good agent." He stood and rested a hand on Morgan's shoulder for a long moment.

When he got back to his seat, Spencer greeted him with a small smile. Somewhere over the Great Plains, Aaron fell asleep.

***

They'd been sitting in silence through a two-hour PBS special on Tenth Century Moorish Spain. Emily was drawn in on herself, arms folded. Dave's arm was draped along the back of the sofa, but he wasn't actually touching her. She was angry about something and he couldn't pinpoint it. Until he knew for sure that she wasn't angry at him, he thought it best to give her a little distance, while acting like everything was normal.

"How did he not know?" Emily burst out finally.

Dave took his attention firmly away from the TV and looked at her. "Spicer?" He didn't need to ask, not really, but he liked to be clear about things.

"How could he not know about his parents? And even if he didn't know, how did his _sister_ not know?"

"She was a baby," Dave pointed out.

"And he was a _cop_ for God's sake!" Emily snapped. "Last time I looked, they do background checks on detectives. How did the fact that his parents were brutally murdered never come up?"

Dave took a long, slow breath. The narrator was talking about the Cordova cathedral. He muted the TV. They listened to the ticking of the mantel clock for a few seconds as he realized she really wanted an answer. "Do we ever talk about the fact that Reid was tortured by a psychopath for two days?" he asked finally. "Or what happened to Morgan?"

Emily frowned. "You weren't here for either of those cases, but you know about them. So someone must talk about it."

"Maybe I should amend that," Dave said. "Do we ever mention it to Reid or Morgan?"

Emily's lips thinned. "I guess not. Just like no one brings up John Cooley to my face."

Dave crooked a smile at her. "No one talks about him behind your back either. It's just...something we know, without it ever being discussed."

She grunted and leaned into his side. "Let's have the team out at Memorial Day too," she said. "In fact, let's invite Jimmy and have him marry us at your house."

Dave snorted and wrapped his arms around her. "You want your church wedding and you know it," he said. "Jimmy had to do a lot of finagling to get it."

"That's not my fault," she said, her voice prim, and Dave laughed aloud.

"God, I love you, Emily Prentiss," he said, and kissed her hair. "You'll never let me get too big for my britches, that's for sure."

She hummed and lifted her face for a real kiss. "No, but I promise to love you for the rest of my life anyway," she murmured.

Dave stroked his fingers over her hair. "I promise that too," he whispered. She hummed and settled into his arms, her fingers curling around his bicep. Dave closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of having her in his arms.

It was tempting to give in and have Jimmy do a simple ceremony at the picnic, but he knew that in her heart Emily wanted some of the formalities of the church wedding. He knew she didn't want anything fancy, but he'd seen her flipping through pictures of wedding dresses when she thought he was busy with other things.

After a while his thoughts drifted back to the way she'd been taking care of Kristin Spicer. "Is the sister going to be okay?" he asked softly.

Emily drew in a slow breath. "I think so," she replied, matching his tone. "She and Allie are close, because of the long hours Allie's dad worked. I think she'll work harder at recovery for Allie's sake."

He sighed, his fingers trailing through her hair again. "I wish you could have talked to the first woman. I felt like Reid and I fumbled our way through that interview."

"I can't believe that," Emily said, snuggling against him and kissing the underside of his jaw.

"She was in restraints. She'd tried to kill herself. Twice." The image of her sprawled in that hospital bed, abject misery in every line of her body, flashed through his head. "I know we needed to see if she could tell us anything, but I felt like a bully. And the worst of it was, she felt _guilty_. She closed her eyes when her husband died."

"God." Emily's arm slipped up around his neck and she hugged him. "Who could watch that? I can't imagine...I think it would kill me to see you--" She broke off and shook her head. "I don't know why Hotch didn't send at least one woman to talk to her. Rape victims don't generally want to talk to a man about it. But I'm sure you were gentle and kind."

"I tried to be." Dave kissed her. He tightened his arms around her until she squeaked. "I love you, Emily. I'm so glad you believe in me."

She smiled and cupped her hand against his cheek. "Thank you for letting me."

***

The minute Aaron and Spencer got home, Aaron went back to Jack's bedroom. Spencer was left to thank Jessica and explain that their case had been a bad one, involving a child who lost her father.

"I think Haley always feared Aaron would burn out and lose any emotion he had," Jessica said, putting away the last of the clean dishes. "I tried to make her understand that his compassion for those victims would never make him love her less..." She swallowed and shook her head. "He's a good man."

Spencer nodded. He wasn't quite sure what she was trying to say, but Aaron _was_ a good man.

Jessica squeezed his shoulder. "Take good care of him." She let herself out.

Bewildered, Spencer locked the door behind her and set the alarm, then went looking for Aaron. He found him lying on Jack's bed, curled protectively around his sleeping son. Spencer smiled faintly and put a hand on Aaron's hip. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, stroking his fingers through Jack's hair.

"I love you," he whispered. And he meant both of them.


End file.
